This website is an alternation accessible form of 3 printed newspapers that are part of PhD student Sarah Houghton’s research which is expected to be completed in 2028.

The project is funded by the University of Portsmouth Heritage Hub in partnership with the Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery and the Portsmouth History Centre.

UNFURLING PORTSMOUTH’S SUFFRAGE BANNERS 

Public opening 28th January ‘25

Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery,

Museum Road, Portsmouth PO1 2LJ  

Opening times - Tuesday - Sunday (and Bank Holiday Mondays), 10am to 5pm. Last admission is 4.30pm. Tel +44 (0) 23 9283 4779

This exhibition forms part of Sarah Houghton’s research for a practice-based PhD with the short title of; Re-presenting the people  This is a play-on-words with reference to the Representation of the People Act from 1918 that marked the moment women gained the right to vote in general elections. Until 1918 the right to vote was not equal for men or women. Following World War I, the government recognised that many men, who had given everything for their country on the battlefield, were unable to vote because they did not own property. As a result, they changed the law to allow men over the age of 21 to vote regardless of property ownership. This reform also marked the first time women over 30 who owned property, paid rent, or were graduates were granted the right to vote. This too was seen as a reward for the way women had contributed to the war effort. 

However, at this time the government chose not to set the voting age at 21, as that would have resulted in women holding a majority of the electorate due to the significant loss of men in the war. It wasn’t until the Equal Franchise Act in 1928 that women over 21 were allowed to vote in general elections without having to meet property ownership criteria.

This exhibition is designed to bring to life the contribution that the Portsmouth’s Suffragists and Suffragettes had on gaining equal voting rights.

There are limited original artefacts that survive from the Portsmouth suffragists. What exists in the archives is showcased for you at this exhibition. To fill in the gaps there are some reproductions of artefacts seen in archival photographs. By creating these replicas, it is hoped to recapture the impact the banners made when they were unfurled, full size, with their striking visual presence to a crowded Town Hall Square in 1913.

Harriet Blessley’s descriptive account of the Pilgrims’ march to London provided the chance to imagine how the route would have looked at the time. Using colourful historical postcards, photographs, and some creative license it is possible to reconstruct, animate and visualise scenes of Portsmouth and the route to London in a screen based motion graphic.

The series of accompanying newspapers aim to highlight the personal stories of those involved, with a special emphasis on uncovering previously unseen photographs of the women at the centre of the story.

Bringing all these elements together in the form of an exhibition seeks to create a vibrant, tactile and visual narrative that will encourage visitors to connect with the past in a meaningful way.  

There’s further information via the QR code and project website www.representingthepeople.co.uk

If you have memories, family narratives, photos, or documents that you would like to contribute to the project, then please connect with me, Sarah, at sarah.houghton@port.ac.uk 

For a thorough and comprehensive account of the suffrage movement in Portsmouth - Votes for Women: The Women’s Fight in Portsmouth (1983) by Sarah Peacock and her Struggle and Suffrage in Portsmouth: Women’s Lives and the Fight for Equality (2018) Sarah Quail

For information about the march Hearts and Minds: The Untold Story of the Great Pilgrimage and How Women Won the Vote (2018) by Jane Robinson

General reading in the seminal The Women’s Suffrage Movement (2000) by Elizabeth Crawford

If you’re interested in the WSPU there’s an excellent biography of their leader Emmeline Pankhurst (2003) by June Purvis

THE  BANNERS

“A banner is a thing to float in the wind, to flicker in the breeze, to flirt its colours for your pleasure, to half show and half conceal a device you long to unravel : you do not want to read it, you want to worship it” 

Banners and Banner-making by M. Lowndes 

Published by the Artist Suffrage League 1909

Four of the banners showcased here have been created as replicas of those captured in a photograph from the Town Hall Square on 17th July 1913, when the Portsmouth Suffragists gathered to set off on their Pilgrimage to Hyde Park in London.

The Surrey Sussex and Hants NUWSS banner seen in the centre of the photograph, survives and can be found in the archives at Worthing Museum.  It was designed by Mary Lowndes and embroidered by Christiana Herringham. The design features in the Mary Lowndes album held at the LSE Women’s Library.

All the replica items on show were made in 2024 by Sarah Houghton as part of her PhD research.